A reminder that this coming Thursday, 8th December, is our last meeting at Fisherrow before the Christmas social evening. It is also the submission date for our first set subject competition of 2022/23. Please send your 3 JPEG images on the theme of “Castles” (sized to 1600×1200 pixels maximum) to George Todd this week. Submitting them now gives Joe a chance to judge the images over the Christmas break. The results will be announced when we return on 5th January.
Best of luck.
This week we were joined at Fisherrow for a fine, in-person presentation, this time given by Jean Manson ( www.jeanmanson.gallery ). The room was busy with only a few folks joining by Zoom.
Jean invited us to dive right in with dramatic shots of Sharks in the waters off South Africa along with some of the aquatic life from local waters, with a particular interest in obtaining dynamic photos of seals in their natural habitat.
Travels in exotic locations such as Botswana provided ample variety along with the relative ease of photography above the water surface and so led to an interest in photographing wild animals on land as well.
Now preferring a mirrorless camera, due to their near silent operation and using mostly only a 300mm lens to keep equipment weight in check, we were treated to photos of a wide variety of animals from Jean’s travels with her camera.
Through Arctic Svalbard and onto Kaktovic in the very north of Alaska capturing Polar Bears, with as many as 39 individuals counted in one evening. Climate change and it’s effects on the bears was raised, but the issue of “sport” hunting by tourists was highlighted as perhaps a more serious and imminent danger for these iconic creatures.
The importance of guides with local knowledge and years of experience around wild animals was shown to provide excellent opportunities to capture many fine images of Brown Bear in Katmai National Park, with one wide-angle shot taken from just 10 inches away from a bear’s head. Fortunately, the bears were more interested in catching Salmon running the river, or in teaching their cubs how to fish, than worrying about a photographer.
We then raced across various African countries and into India seeing a great variety of birds and animal life, from Elephant’s outside the hotel window to big cats such as Leopard and Cheetah along with Gorillas, Deer, Wild Dogs, Owls and many more.
Covid restrictions may have hampered travel but Jean concentrated on the local wildlife and provided many excellent shots of Hares along with deer, badgers and hedghogs. Jean talked about carrying your camera every day and getting used to capturing photos so regularly that you hardly need to look at the settings. Birds, particularly Gannets are a favourite and highlighted the fact that you should not take things for granted, Avian Flu has already decimated numbers on Bass Rock and recovery may take years.
Some take-home messages…
1) Carry your camera to capture photographs wherever you are – take a picture every day!
2) Some field craft goes a long way, getting to know your subjects improves your chances.
3) Scotland’s fine dusk and dawn light is less fleeting than in exotic locations, use it.
Next week is “Sets of Six”. Please bring along up to 6 images (or one video) on any subject to show other members. Alternately, if you have a special technique you think will help other members (like the printing tips which Charlie gave before) you can use this evening to tell us about it.
A reminder that entries for the black and white print competition need to be handed in this coming Thursday, 3rd November. Please bring your 3 mounted prints to Fisherrow and email JPEG copies of your images to George.
See you Thursday for our colour print competition, judged by Neil Scott. Although we will be broadcasting the competition on Zoom, you will see the prints much more clearly if you come in person.
A reminder that our 2022/23 season will be restarting this Thursday, 1st September 2022 at 7pm in room G3 of the Fisherrow Centre in Musselburgh.
Come along to rejoin the club or meet our members.
Prestonpans community council are looking for photographs of Preston Tower to help with its restoration. If you have any photographs of Preston Tower in your collection please email them to prestonpanscommunitycouncil@gmail.com, together with dates when they were taken. You can also click this sentence to add photos to their original Facebook post.
I am delighted to tell members that the Musselburgh Camera Club library exhibition will be starting again this year. The club is looking for volunteers on the following dates to help with the exhibition change-overs:
We need at least 2 volunteers to help with each transfer, and I would be happy to volunteer for the Port Seton setup and Prestonpans change-overs. I have a volunteer sheet which we can pass around at Fisherrow. If you are planning to come to Fisherrow this week please sign the sheet if you would like to volunteer. Otherwise, please email me at StevenMBeard@aol.com .
The entry deadline for part C of our set subject competition is coming up this Thursday, 3rd March. Please send your 3 JPEG images on the subject of “Street Photography” to George Todd this week.
Only one point separates the top 3 places, so this competition could be the decider!
27th January was another milestone for Musselburgh Camera Club. We had our first true print competition for 2 years! The last time we reviewed prints at the Fisherrow Centre was for an earlier human portrait print competition on 30th January 2020. This week’s competition was judged by Gordon Scott of Mid Calder camera club. You can see some of Gordon’s work at the link below:
https://www.midcaldercameraclub.org.uk/gallery-gordonscott
This competition was more complex than previous print competitions because we were broadcasting the event to members who preferred to connect by Zoom. We set up a narrow-angle webcam which captured a view of our print stand, and Gordon wore a radio microphone. A wide-angle microphone was used to speak to the members on Zoom. The complexity of the situation lead to some technical issues, and we learned it is important to make a careful note of which microphone is which in the list that Zoom gives you. Gordon was very patient with us.
8 members had entered 24 images altogether. Gordon noted that some of the images (which showed groups of people interacting) stretched the definition of a portrait, which he expected to be of a single person. There were photographs of people at work, people taking part in a battle re-enactment, people on the street, and images captured from a photoshoot. John West had entered a selfie, which amused some of the audience. Gordon commented on the location of the subject within the frame. Some images were cropped a little too tightly, for example cropping off the top of the subject’s hat. Other images seemed to have too much space on one side, or could have been angled differently to show more of an elaborate costume and less background. Gordon pointed to distractions which could have been removed, darkened or cropped out. He also explained how the depth of field is important. In most portraits it is important to blur out the background to keep attention on the subject; with the exception of subjects who are doing a job, where it is important to be able to see what they are doing. Some of the images were spoiled by an unfortunate pose, for example a hand which was too dominant. The final thing which separated the best images from the rest was the lighting. Harsh lighting caused distracting shadows or bright streaks on some portraits. The very best images were captured in soft lighting. Gordon’s top 6 images (which can be seen on our Facebook page) were:
The top scorers were (in reverse order):
Congratulations to George Todd, whose 3 images all made the top 6. Thank you to everyone who dusted off their printers and made the effort to enter this competition, and thank you very much to Gordon Scott for judging and putting up with our technical issues.
Next week we have the second of our set subject competitions: “Travel in Scotland”.
See you on Thursday,
Steven
Joe Fowler has obtained some picture frames we can use to restore our display of photographs on the wall of room G3 at the Fisherrow Centre. We now need a selection of interesting recent photographs from members to show off the work of the club.
If you have any photographs you would like displayed, please bring a print to the next club meeting and give it to Joe Fowler. The frames can take up to A3-sized prints. You can either bring in an A3 print to fit the frame without a mount, or bring in an A4 print and Joe will cut a mount to suit the frame. We are looking for about 6-10 images from as many members as possible.
Our first club meeting after Christmas was the first of our 3 set subject competitions: competition A on the subject of “Reflections”. The competition was judged by Malcolm Roberts, who had won last year’s competition.
27 images had been entered by 9 members, with different techniques used to capture the reflection. There were images of reflections in lochs, harbours and rivers; and reflections in windows and shiny floors. Jennifer Davidson had used a puddle to capture a unique reflected view of the Kelpies and Carol Edmond had captured flowers reflected in a mirror and glass table. But perhaps the most intriguing image was John West’s photograph of a reflection in a spoon. Malcolm awarded the highest points to the most atmospheric images taken in the best lighting and with the fewest distractions, and Mike Clark’s beautiful “Misty Morning Loch Ard” was admired by all. Malcolm noted that some of the images had lost detail in the shadows or highlights. He also suggested cropping some images to home in on the detail, or using a different viewpoint to balance the composition (which isn’t always possible when standing on a balcony or next to water).
The top scorers were (in reverse order):
The top images were:
Well done to Joe Fowler, who wins the right to judge next year’s competition. This is the first of a 3-part competition, with the final result depending on the total score from the best 2 competitions. The observant will notice that only 1 point separates the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th places, so at this stage everybody is still in with a chance.
Please note that the image hand-in date for part 2 of this competition (on the theme of “Travel In Scotland”) is this coming Thursday, 13th January 2022. Please send your 3 JPEG images to George Todd. Images for the final part of the competition (on the theme of “Street Photography”) are due on 3rd March 2022.
Musselburgh Camera Club 
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